The Alpine F1 team announced its support of Abbi Pulling for the 2024 F1 Academy season as part of a new initiative for the all-female series.
All 10 F1 teams will support an F1 Academy driver in 2024, with the championship’s remaining five drivers being backed by other partners.
This initiative has been launched for the second year of F1 Academy, which made its debut in 2023 following the demise of W Series.
So, with the season starting in March 2024 in Saudi Arabia, here is everything you need to know about F1 Academy and its upcoming 2024 campaign:
F1 Academy is a female-only single-seater championship which aims to increase the development of women drivers in motorsport between the ages of 16 and 25. It therefore tries to create an easier transition from karting onto the single-seater ladder, with the hope that female drivers can then use F1 Academy as a springboard to higher levels of competition like Formula 3 and beyond.
The series was announced in November 2022 at a time when the future of W Series - a separate all-female, single-seater category - looked uncertain as the championship struggled financially and, shortly after, it entered administration before closing.
This left F1 Academy as the sole all-female series in motor racing, and it received significant backing from F1 where ahead of its debut campaign, Susie Wolff was appointed managing director.
Many drivers from the defunct W Series switched to F1 Academy - but not W Series champion Jamie Chadwick who moved to Indy NXT - and the grid of 15 was split into five teams - Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, ART Grand Prix, Rodin Carlin and Prema Racing - all with experience of racing in F2 or F3.
Source: Autosport